London-Tokyo flights halved
Loss-making Japan Airlines (JAL) will cut 17 domestic and international routes by June next year, with a further two routes to see a drop in frequency, including London.
JAL will stop half of the 14 weekly flights between Tokyo and London from December 7, while the Tokyo-Taipei route will see a decrease from 28 to 21 flights per week.
Flights between Tokyo and Hangzhou, Qingdao and Xiamen will be axed from December 7, as well as Osaka to Hangzhou.
From January 12, flights from Osaka to Busan and Hanoi will cease, with the Osaka-Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route to follow suit on January 17.
Domestic route cuts include Tokyo-Kobe and Nagoya-Kumamoto, along with eight others.
The announcement comes after a year of financial woes for the airline, which is understood to need a loan of about JPY180bn (€1.34bn) as it could run out of cash by the end of this month, Reuters reported.
JAL's creditors rebuffed the government's Y600bn (€4.5bn) rescue plan in October, which would have granted the airline up to €2.25bn (Y300bn) in debt waivers or debt for equity swaps.
The airline's main creditor is the state-owned Development Bank of Japan with others including the Mizuho Corporate Bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
The plan included plans for 9,000 redundancies, the axing of 50 long haul flights and a pay and pensions freeze.
A new rescue plan is currently being drawn up by the Japanese transport ministry, after the Japanese government ordered a team of ministry officials to work out a new scheme.
JAL received a loan of $1.1bn earlier this year to help it with its deficit from the previous Japanese government.
It has also been in talks - now on hold - with two US carriers, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, a fellow member of the oneworld alliance about a possible cash injection of $300m.
JAL lost $692m last year and announced a $1bn loss for the quarter to June this year.
It is heading for a deficit of $700m for the financial year ending next March.
www.jal.com [1] www.aa.com [2] www.delta.com [3]